Saayantanee Majumdar

Saayantanee was literally born in music.

For music was the sustenance of life to her parents, Prabir and Chitra Majumdar. Her father, Prabir Majumder was one of the greatest Composer, Lyricist and Musicologists from West Bengal during the 50s- 80s. Her mother Chitra Majumdar was a regular vocal artiste of Akashvani and a recording artiste of HMV.

Sayantanee trained under her father Late Prabir Majumdar .With Debiranjan Banerjee, she learnt North Indian Light Classical music and Late Ustaad Sagiruddin Khan Sahib, from whom she received vocal training in Ghazals.

No wonder, the chords of music never falter in Saayantanee.

Starting her career as a child artiste of Akashvani, Saayantanee sung a duet with the great Vocalist Manna De for the film “Suryasakkhi” at the age of fifteen.

That was followed by a soiree with Manna De at Kalamandir that left renowned critic Debashis Dasgupta so impressed that he referred to her as “Bhorer Kokil” which means “Nightingale of the Morning” in a review published in “Desh”.

That was the phase, when Saayantanee was a playback singer in many Bengali films like Batasi, Sudhu Tomary, Ek PoshIa Brishti, Baba Taraknath and Karoti to mention only a few. She also lent her voice in many films from Bangladesh, notable among them being those composed by renowned composers Allauddin Ali and Pranab Ghosh. Apart from singing in other regional languages like Assamese, Oriya, Nepalese, she also performed in more than 3,000 advertisement jingles. She also played a major part in Salil Chowdhury’s Choral group of singers.Another notable work of this period was a poignant rendering of a title song for the telefilm, “Vijaya” composed by the music maestro, Salil Chowdhury.Saayantanee has also sung for numerous television series which include Shimana Chhariye, Khelaghar, Ebong Computer and so on. She has also rendered her voice in a number of Telefilms. Some of them include Akashchhoan, Asamapto, Aloy Phera, Ankush and Mishraraag.

Thereafter, Saayantanee left Calcutta for America and Europe where she became a household name synonymous with hundreds of Karaoke CDs of Hindi music. While experimenting with karaoke, Saayantanee got introduced to the Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh, with whom she performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1999).

Saayantanee is now back in Calcutta in search of her roots, that is, Bengali music. A gifted voice coupled with spontaneous and matured singing talent that can render to perfection any musical expression. And that has earned Saayantanee a pride of place among the finest exponents of present day Bengali music. Not to mention, she has also been a prolific singer of Hindi songs, Geet, Ghazal, Folk music and Devotional among others.

Saayantanee has always been a favourite with music lovers who have great expectations from her in future.